The Truth About American War CrimesHistory Movies Endorsed by Sioux Falls Free Thinkers

Sioux Falls Free Thinkers recommend the movies and books below on the Truth About American War Crimes.

American History is not what you've been taught in High School or even in College. Much of the truth has been hidden, skipped over, glossed over to the point of being unrecognizable, or spun to make Americans think we are the greatest nation on earth. Never mind that we perpetuated atrocities, crimes and theft against the American native population, against the slaves, against the peoples of South America, Africa, South East Asia and Asia proper, and the Middle East. Americans have killed more innocent people than all but four nations; Germany, Japan, Russia, and China. We seem to be obsessed with World Domination fully willing to support brutal dictatorships in order for our corporations to make profits at the expense of the people in the countries our corporations exploit. It's not a pretty picture.

Case in point. Americans murdered about 3 million innocent civilians in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. The people there were basically farmers who lived in bamboo huts and bamboo houses and whose great dream was to get a water buffalo to ease their labor in the their rice paddies and rice fields. They had no defense against our bombs, and especially not against our napalm bombs which we used to burn entire villages sending every man, woman, child, elderly person and baby to a horrible death. Once napalm lands on you it just burns through you. Imagine the horror and pain of a innocent child whose arm or leg is burning off in front of his or her eyes. We also murdered without trial 25,000 of the Vietnamese people as spies in operation Phoenix. We even lined up villagers in ditches and slaughtered women and children just like the Nazi's did in Europe. The people of Vietnam couldn't tell the difference between us and the Nazi's. We did many of the same things.

To the above atrocities add Agent Orange, unexploded bombs and artillery shells, and the cluster bombs for kids. Agent Orange is still causing birth defects and birth deformities in South East Asia forty-five years later. Unexploded ordnance still buried makes it impossible to use much of the best farm land, and children still pick up the cute little toys with the Mickey Mouse faces and get their hands or faces blown off. If this happened to us in America do you think we'd ever forgive and forget? Not likely!

These people were not a threat in any way to the United States or our interests. What were they going to do? Ride across the Pacific Ocean on their water buffalo and invade us? But we had the power to murder them in large numbers so murder them we did. All in the name of stopping the spread of communism, which was hardly going to spread to America across the Pacific. We never seem to learn that mass killing of a people stiffens their resolve. The Nazi's learned that in Russia. The South East Asians would rather have all died than give in to the likes of us. And who would blame them. And how stupid can we be?

And that's just recently. Add to that Iraq, a completely unjustified war. The Philippines in the early 20th century, with it's own set of American atrocities there. The support of the South American dictatorships and the training of their death squads by the CIA run School of the Americas. And much much more which will be documented on this website with many books and movie documentaries. You just have to open your eyes and mind and say "No More!" because if you don't America will do it all again to more innocent people someplace else.

12-30-16 America's worrying war crimes regressionAmerica's worrying war crimes regression"I charge you," George Washington wrote to the then-loyal Benedict Arnold preparing to lead the Quebec Campaign of 1775, "as you value your own safety and honour, and the favour and esteem of your Country, that you check, by every motive of duty and fear of punishment, every attempt to plunder or insult any of the inhabitants of Canada." "Should any American soldier be so base and infamous as to injure any Canadian or Indian," Washington continued, that soldier should be subject to "severe and exemplary punishment" appropriate to the "shame, disgrace, and ruin" such behavior brought "to themselves and Country." Washington was not alone among the Founding Fathers in his condemnation of what we would today call "war crimes." Patrick Henry argued that the great virtue of the English common law system was its tendency to prohibit the cruelty found under civil law systems in Europe. "What has distinguished our ancestors?" he asked during debate at the Virginia ratifying convention for the Constitution. "That they would not admit of tortures, or cruel and barbarous punishment." Some in the new United States would seek to introduce torture, he warned, on the grounds that it is "a necessity of strengthening the arm of government." If they succeed, he warned, "We are then lost and undone."Our incoming president has enthused on his willingness to intentionally bomb women and children who have the misfortune of being related to terrorists — and thanks to the largely unfettered war powers claimed by the previous two administrations, he may well manage to do exactly that. (If 16-year-old Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, an American citizen under no suspicion of terrorism, can be assassinated by U.S. drone strike because his father was an al Qaeda propagandist, it is hardly a stretch to imagine Trump targeting the children of Islamic State leaders.) (Webmaster's comment: The murder of innocents is never justified and is a murder and war crime committed by those who authorize it!)

8-22-16 How John Hersey's Hiroshima revealed the horror of the bombHow John Hersey's Hiroshima revealed the horror of the bombAt the end of this month 70 years will have passed since the publication of a magazine story hailed as one of the greatest pieces of journalism ever written. Headlined simply Hiroshima, the 30,000-word article by John Hersey had a massive impact, revealing the full horror of nuclear weapons to the post-war generation, as Caroline Raphael describes. Past the Goings on About Town and movie listings, past the ritzy adverts for diamonds and fur and cars and cruises you find a simple statement from The Editors explaining that this edition will be devoted entirely to just one article "on the almost complete obliteration of a city by one atomic bomb". They are taking this step, they say, "in the conviction that few of us have yet comprehended the all but incredible destructive power of this weapon, and that everyone might well take time to consider the terrible implications of its use". Seventy years ago no-one talked about stories "going viral", but the publication of John Hersey's article Hiroshima in The New Yorker achieved just that. It was talked of, commented on, read and listened to by many millions all over the world as they began to understand what really happened not just to the city but to the people of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 and in the following days.

5-27-16 How to justify the war crime in HiroshimaHow to justify the war crime in HiroshimaOn Friday, President Obama became the first sitting president of the United States to travel to Hiroshima. This is a highly symbolic event, and one that reignites the conversation around the moral status of the United States' bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, which killed more than 200,000 people. Let's not beat around the bush: Those bombings were war crimes. Yes, civilian deaths are inevitable in warfare, but there is a crucial difference between killing civilians unintentionally and doing so deliberately. And yet President Harry Truman was still probably right to drop the bombs.

12-12-15 US strike on Afghan Kunduz clinic 'killed 42', MSF saysUS strike on Afghan Kunduz clinic 'killed 42', MSF saysMuch of the clinic was destroyed after being struck by more than 200 shells in less than an hour. Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) says a US attack on its clinic in the Afghan city of Kunduz killed at least 42 people - far more than first reported. The medical charity had earlier said at least 30 people died in the 3 October attack by a US military gunship. MSF said the figure was revised after a detailed investigation, complicated by the extensive damage to the clinic. A US military inquiry said the attack was the result of "human error" but MSF has called it a war crime. (Webmaster's comment: Terrorizing the civilian population by killing the innocent is a favorite United States military tactic used when they have not been able to defeat the enemy in combat.)

The courses are all available from TheGreatCourses.com. They can be expensive but they are often on sale for 30% of the regular listed price. The course links on the following pages point to the course location at The Great Courses.

Sioux Falls Free Thinkers enthusiastically endorse the 13 American Military War Crimes History documentaries, 6 movies, and 9 books described on the following 29 pages: